Terps set to take on George Mason

Last year when the Maryland Terrapins women’s soccer team faced off against George Mason, the match ended in a 5-2 defeat. Nearly one year later, the Terps will travel to Fairfax looking to come out victorious on Sunday night and remain unbeaten.

With a new group of players and a newfound swagger, Maryland has pretty good chance to do just that.

Coming off a thrilling 1-0 overtime victory against Richmond, Maryland will enter Sunday’s matchup with a lot of momentum. Sitting at 4-0-1, the Terps have already surpassed their win total from the entire last season.

Offensively the Terps have not been lighting up the scoreboard by any means, but timely scoring like senior Chelsea Jackson’s last minute goal against Richmond has been the recipe for success in 2017.

An interesting storyline in this game will be how the Terps will play without star freshman forward Mikayla Dayes. It is undetermined whether she will be on the field for Maryland come Sunday night after she suffered a knee bruise on Thursday that forced her to leave the game. The Terps do have other options as five different players have scored this year, but Dayes’ ability to create opportunities for herself and her teammates has become vital for the offense.

On defense, Maryland will look to copy Thursday night’s performance in which they held Richmond scoreless. On the season, the Terps have not given up multiple goals to any of their five opponents. Junior goalie Rachel Egyed has played a big part in the defensive success. After a rotation of goalies in 2016, Egyed has taken control of the starting spot.

Following a 13 win season in 2016, George Mason has struggled to get going in 2017 as they sit at 0-4 while being outscored 10-2. The Patriots will look for a big game from junior forward Erin Mitchell. Mitchell is scoreless in 2017 but is coming off a season in which she finished with a team-high eight goals.